some catching up...

Today I am waiting out the rain before I begin the trek up to #12, Shozanji. It will be a long day, and I am still entirely spent from yesterday's push to make it to "base camp" at #11: Fujii-dera, Temple of Wisteria. I am not staying at the temple proper, but had originally planned on a spot halfway between 10 & 11, a rural ryokan called Kane Moon, or something phonetically similar... I ended up opting for a place closer to Fujii-dera, in the town of Kamojima, a business hotel called ACCESS. The place was brand new, and very modern, and not bad at only ¥5500, with free breakfast, free coffee anytime, and a web-surfing computer for free use in the lobby. I ended up finding my own connection thanks to the HWL2A, even if low bandwidth and slightly temperamental... Too bad I fell asleep too early to make much use of it!

I decided to stay another night, but they were booked, so I've moved about a mile up the road to the Ryokan Yoshino (the name of the massive river that creates this flood plain), a bit closer to the temple. Now I'm just around the corner, so my first accomplishment will come early in the morning! (Nice when you don't have to walk for 2 hours for the gratification of reaching the next temple!) But I won't reach 12 until much much later in the day: it is 12.9km from #11, and all in the mountains. And we aren't talking rolling hills, these are steep, rugged, volcanic formations, with lots of channels and valleys, so it will be a lot of up and a considerable amount of down. Which means that by the time i get there, I might have covered the elevation twice! Ugh.

I guess I will be missing the wisteria season, but that's fine with me; I'm glad to be traveling now while its still cool, no bugs, not too many people on the trail. And if it's this difficult to make hotel reservations now, I can only imagine what it must be like in the height of the henro season. I've already had to change plans twice because the place I wanted to stay was booked. It tends to throw a wrench into my well-rehearsed questions and answers when I'm told over the phone that there isn't any room. Usually it ends up just being a bunch of awkward pauses until they get that I don't understand, and say in simple terms: Dekimasen! Or literally: Can't do it. But surprisingly, I am picking up a lot of things I just didn't know before, even without explicit explanation. Now I can understand the difference between a night with 2 meals, and just a simple stay-over, and I know how to ask for another night in the same room. You can't imagine how much anxiety these simple things caused the first couple of days!

So between the last time I posted, and now, I've covered some real distance. The night I spent in the youth hostel in Nara, for starters, was quite an experience. The place was recommended highly, and I could see why - for a hostel it was in great shape, and clean, and the staff were very friendly. Even my bed was comfy! But the thing about hostels: the roommates.... I shared my room with a 73 year old lady who claimed to have traveled the world in her better days. I hoped we'd have a lot to talk about, she wanting to brush up on her english vocab, and me, working on my japanese... But after we got talking, it became clear that there were some pieces missing. It got really weird when she started muttering and cackling and (!!!) throwing things at me! I got assailed with a wadded up shopping bag, and some random paper trash... I really couldn't figure it out, but she didn't seem angry - she seemed just thrilled to tears with my reaction... I was so confused, and she just kept laughing and laughing, until finally I got up to leave. "Doko iku no?" Where you goin'? she asked me. I muttered I might have a bath, and ran out.

After a cigarette in the dining hall to cool off, I went to the public bath up the hall. Japanese style, where you sit on a stool and shower/bathe, and then hop in the tub with everyone else. When I got there, I was shocked at two things: 1, how COLD it was in there - you'd think they were using it as a walk-in cooler! And 2, my bathing buddy. The old coot had beat me to it. She was just getting in the tub when I came in. I, however, was not about to appear squeamish, and so, freezing my buns off, I grabbed a stool and pulled up to one of the faucets. I had a hell of a time getting any hot water or any pressure, and she just laughed and laughed at my futile efforts. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, she started using her wash bucket to shovel water at me from the tub. Just flinging it at me. I was at such a loss as to what on earth to do. "Onegai shimasu!!!" (If you please!!) didn't seem to do any good. Eventually I lost hold of my manners, and just yelled "DAMEDESU!" which is a not very careful nor polite way to let someone know that something is just plain wrong. She just cackled and started mocking me in this childish singsong voice - dame! hahaha, dame! She was going wild with glee, splashing and throwing water at me, and squealing with delight. Finally, I realized that the reason I couldn't get any pressure was that she had the main faucet in the tub going full blast, which was only necessary because she was emptying the tub as fast as it was filling. I somehow managed to convince her to turn it off, and got halfway through my shampoo and conditioner routine before she cranked it back on again. Eventually, I gave up, and just got into the damn tub, curled up in the fetal position, and shut my eyes. Ignoring her seemed to work at least a little. She only got in and out of the tub 2 or 3 more times, and I wondered if she wasn't trying to show me up in that the showers worked just fine for her... I just sat still and didn't say a word, until she finally left and I had all of 5 minutes to myself before the attendant was knocking and telling me it was time to close the bath for the night.

After I left the bath I went back to the dining room for another cigarette (I don't usually smoke so much!) and there was my new buddy, having a bite to eat, along with a young guy on vacation from school. They were talking a bit, commenting on the tv and whatnot, and she acted for all the world like the sweetest most with-it grandma in all the world! I couldn't believe that the crazy bit was just an act for me!!! She looked at me with a little twinkle in her evil eye, and went on chatting pleasantly about the weather with Kato-san. I made it upstairs before her, and put everything I had in my bunk and closed the curtain. I was not coming out, I was not going to talk, I was going to have some peace if it killed me. I left as early in the morning as I could!

After a first night like that, it's a wonder I didn't turn right around! I guess it's a good thing I don't have any place to stay in Tokyo, or I might not have made it this far...

So this brings us to Thursday, the 9th... I spent the entire morning on trains, transferring here and there, on my way to Koya-san. Actually, I fell asleep on the train out of Nara, and as it was an express to Osaka, I ended up riding the whole of the Osaka loop line to get back to my station... I suppose if you only had a half hour, it is not a bad way to see Osaka!

As the train headed up into the hills, it started to snow. Once we were up on the high ridges, every tree was frosted in white, and the ravines dropped away from the very side of the tracks. It was just stunning, but my pictures can't do it justice. The tracks twisted in and out of steep valleys and around the ridges so slowly that it added a real suspense to the ride. The track was only one lane wide, unlike most that I've seen here, and so we even had to wait for about 10 minutes at one station for a train coming down the mountain to pass us. After what seemed like forever, we reached the bottom of the cable car. Now, this is not like what we think of a cable car at home, no gondola or anything like that. It is a sort of trolley car built like a set of stairs, and it sits on a track with a 45 degree angle, with a 4-inch diameter cable that hauls it to the top of the track. If it sounds perilous, you should have seen it! (Pictures soon!)

I got to the top, and the little bus station, at about 1:45, and spent the rest of the day exploring the little town that is Koya-san. I remember thinking that it seemed a little bit like the japanese version of Millinocket in winter. Except that almost the entire town is consisted of over 200 temples of the Shingon Buddhist faith. The roads were narrow and covered in snow, and the "downtown" consisted of one intersection, a couple of diners, a souvenir shop, and the information center, which was about as informative as my elbow. The clerk kept telling me I was looking at the wrong map if I wanted to go to the Okunon-in (Holy of Holies) where Kobo Daishi is entombed. The problem was that the map I was reading had actual trails printed on it, even if the marked route was a separate hike, it included the area I wanted, but the tourist map he was insisting on had no such detail. I am glad I took both, I would have gotten lost without the detailed trail map. The problem with some people trying to help is that they think that all foreigners must be stupid.

The Okuno-in is the mausoleum at the very back of a vast cemetery that climbs up into an ancient cedar forest. The trees there are massive, and the silence is beautiful. In the snow, it was just idyllic. I spent more than an hour sitting behind the temple there, facing the tomb in the back, waiting for my candle to burn down, waiting for dusk to fall so that I could see the Hall of Lanterns, as it is also known, in its full glow. A little after 5pm, the monks started ringing an ancient bell and chanting sutras. One at a time, they came around to the back to say their private prayers to the Daishi. I began to wonder if I belonged here at all, or if I was an unwelcome intruder. I just sat quietly with my head down and tried to be inconspicuous. Eventually my fears faded as I heard a clack clack clack and looked up to see a pouty princess in purple stiletto cowboy boots with rabbit fur trim come sashaying down the corridor with her pierced, spiked, and disaffected boyfriend. I knew I had no reason to worry!

I caught the bus back to the cable car around 6:30, and after coming down, caught the train to Wakayama, on the Seto Inland Sea. I had no place in Wakayama lined up, since all the hostels turned out to be ridiculously far from town, and so I hung out in the downtown area by the station for a while trying to make a plan. With help via cellphone email, I hoped I could book a room from the internet, but nothing can be prepaid, so I waited... trying to decide what to do. A slightly creepy salaryman kept popping up wherever I went and trying to take me out for coffee, and I kept blowing him off, saying I was waiting for my friend. Eventually, after a little bit of polite chitchat, I stopped in at the police box I had been keeping within sight, and asked if they knew a cheap hotel. I was referred to the City Inn, and I could see it from where we were. So I was off, and I was glad to leave that guy well behind me.

On the way up the street, I noticed a very cute little hotel on a side street so I thought I'd check the price and see if it was reasonable. When I got into the lobby, there was no front desk, just a big lit-up board of pictures, one of each room - and they had no windows! I was in a LOVE HOTEL! YIKES! I had almost made it out the door when a lady came out and tried to convince me to stay by offering an overnight price that was cheaper than the posted hourly rates. I thanked her with a smile and left! City Inn Wakayama, here I come!

The City was really old and shabby, the kind of place that's just dripping in history, about which you are not at all curious. I got a tatami room big enough for 4, and it was nice just to have space to myself. I enjoyed the QUIET bath, and spent the evening with a free internet connection. I celebrated the turn of my 31st year with treats from Mister Donut. Yes, as some are glad to know, they have Mister Donut here too! d(^o^)b (two thumbs up!)

Ok, gonna post this now, so it appears in digestible chunks!!